Prisoners and Clinical Trials
By Osagie K. Obasogie,
Genetic Crossroads
| 06. 29. 2007
Cruel and Unusual Ethics?
Much ink has been spilled over the Institute of Medicine's (IOM) recent recommendation to loosen federal restrictions on using prisoners as human subjects in medical research. Supporters point to the pharmaceutical and biomedical industry's growing need for participants in clinical trials, and to changing values among ethicists regarding autonomy and informed consent. Opponents highlight the legacy of past abuses and the likelihood that they will be repeated.
The Department of Health and Human Services commissioned the Institute of Medicine to "review the ethics regarding research involving prisoners . . . to explore whether [past] conclusions . . . remain appropriate today." Though the IOM makes several suggestions, the rubber meets the road in its recommendation to shift from the policy put in place in the 1970s, which severely limits clinical trials in prisons, to a more subjective risk/benefit analysis.
To justify this recommendation, the IOM changes the ethical framework governing prisoner participation as human subjects. The current framework, crafted to prevent repetitions of the serious abuses of past years, prioritizes justice - ensuring that prisoners are treated fairly in terms...
Related Articles
By Tomoko Otake, The Japan Times | 04.09.2024
A decade ago, researcher Haruko Obokata caused a sensation when she published two papers in the journal Nature, in which she claimed that she had discovered a way to create stem cells easily using the so-called STAP method.
With STAP...
By Yelena Biberman and Jonathan D. Moreno, Bioethics Forum | 04.16.2024
A quiet biological revolution in warfare is underway. The genome is emerging as a new domain of conflict. The level of destruction that only nuclear weapons could previously achieve is fast becoming as accessible as a cyberattack.
Now for the...
CGS is excited to announce the launch of a new anti-eugenics initiative that has been years in the making. Legacies of Eugenics in Science, Medicine, and Technology kicks off with a monthly essay series published at the Los Angeles Review of Books that will expose and contest the reemergence of eugenic ideas in contemporary health sciences, human biotechnology, public health, and medicine. Community and campus-based events featuring the authors are also being planned. The project is a collaboration among CGS...
By Tristan Manalac, BioSpace | 04.02.2024
Verve Therapeutics has suspended enrollment in the Phase Ib Heart-1 study evaluating its lead gene editing program VERVE-101 following a serious adverse event, the company announced Tuesday.
A patient, who received a 0.45-mg/kg dose of VERVE-101, developed a grade 3...